s”Let’s put all our marketing dollars into direct mailing and outbound dialing – we’re sure to convert big time!”

20 years ago…that might have been effective. In fact, it worked well for various businesses with regards to generating leads. However, a lot has changed over the past 20 years. With the advancements in technology, people have migrated online and are likely to engage in the following activities on a daily basis:

• Check their inbox only to delete a bunch of spam / notification emails.
• Login to Facebook on a mobile device to check out the latest memes and/or watch a Tasty video.
• Inevitably make a purchase on Amazon after browsing for hours (yours truly is guilty of this).
• Search for random stuff on Google, such as “Who is Stronger: Superman or Hulk?”

The proliferation of the Internet has led to the prominence of inbound marketing tactics to capture web traffic. Rather than utilizing tactics that general people may deem annoying (such as telemarketing), marketing professionals have begun to effectively generate leads and revenue via digital campaigns. While outbound still serves a purpose within some industries, an investment in inbound marketing can pay dividends for businesses that want to cut through the noise and acquire customers by securing trust with users. Inbound marketing can encompass any of the following online marketing activities:

• Search Engine Optimization
• PPC Advertising and general Media Buying (Display Ads, Retargeting, etc.)
• Social Media Marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & More
• Content Marketing & Blogger Outreach
• Email Marketing

Why is Inbound Marketing Awesome?

As digital gurus refine and optimize these processes online, they will continue to see a bigger return on investment from inbound marketing campaigns. In HubSpot’s recent State of Inbound 2015 report, B2B and B2C companies of all types have stated that they are beginning to realize the massive potential behind some of the tactics referenced above. Key findings within the report include:

• Three out of every four marketing professionals across the world have prioritized an approach to inbound over traditional outbound tactics.
• Both inbound and outbound marketing professionals have ranked traditional paid advertising as the most overrated marketing tactic, which includes print advertising, out-of-home / outdoor media (OOH), and broadcast (TV & radio).
• The number one challenge most companies face is attributing revenue to specific marketing campaigns. The biggest issue some companies have is the absence of analytics and campaign tracking, which results in the emerging difficulty to tie offline revenues to online marketing activities. This is why it’s essential to have an optimized foundation for analytics and reporting to measure campaign metrics accurately.
• Regardless of marketing budgets, it seems like companies are three times as likely to see a higher return on investment on inbound marketing than outbound tactics.

Overall, it seems like inbound marketing is here to stay and will continue to evolve as new digital platforms emerge. Even the tactics referenced above continue to evolve on a regular basis, such as Google’s latest update removing ads from the right-hand side, resulting in both SEO and PPC advertising professionals to revisit existing strategies to maximize coverage on search. To quench your thirst, we have prepared a rather delectable infographic providing some insight into the basic elements you can optimize to be successful within each marketing activity. Should these recipes tickle your fancy, maybe it’s time to up your game and fully commit yourself to utilizing the inbound marketing arsenal referenced within this post to boost your online presence.

Enjoy!